Nightmares of the Cursed Heart
by Lunalove25
Summary: Discovering the corpse of Captain Killian "Hook" Jones was a monumental find for the Storybrooke Naval Museum, but when Peter and Wendy accidentally awaken the pirate from his death-sleep and he gets caught in the pirate's plans to be used as a sacrifice for his lost love, only she can break the curse and save them all from the former terror of the high seas. T for language
1. What a Night For a Fright

**Am I pulling out and completing a draft from, like, six months ago just because Robbie was announced to be coming back to Once for the 100th episode and like the DarlingPan trash that I am, I couldn't resist writing this?**

 **Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing.**

 **This was inspired by the game Nightmares of the Deep: The Cursed Heart. It really drew me in and I loved the themes of it, so naturally I had to do this. This story is going to be a lot darker than anything I normally write, but the timelines should be fairly easy to follow, since for the most part the characters from different points in times are the same as in the show's canon. Ah, you'll see what I mean later.**

 **As usual, I own nothing. Enjoy!**

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Wendy slid the heavy bronze key into the lock, fingers trembling with anticipation. The door to the Storybrooke Naval Museum creaked open slowly, and she made a mental note to remind her father, who happened to be the curator, to find someone to oil the hinges.

The open area that made up the lobby was scarcely lit as they stepped inside, and she felt along the wall for a light switch while Peter closed their umbrella and placed it in a corner to dry. The two of them were close friends and had been since they were children, and at the age of fifteen they were at the right time of their lives to cause a bit of mischief. That, however, was not their intention that night. After nearly a month of Wendy pleading and doing extra chores, George Darling had granted them permission to see the largest and most extravagant exhibit the museum had to offer before the public could.

Wendy finally found the light switch and flipped it; the room illuminated so quickly that she had to shield her eyes. Thunder rumbled outside as rain beat down on the windows and glass dome at the top of the ceiling, the occasional blast of lightning giving the room an odd glow momentarily before it was engulfed back into its former state of semi-darkness.

"Hell of a night to do this, Wend," Peter said.

"I told you - the exhibit opens tomorrow," Wendy replied. "Father said that if we wanted to see it first, this was our only chance. Unless," she raised an arched eyebrow at him, "you're scared?"

Peter smirked, his usual response to her light teasing. "As if."

"Prove it."

"You're on."

Wendy knew the museum like the back of her hand - she had practically grown up marveling at the artifacts with her little brothers. The only reason that Michael and John weren't accompanying them was because at the ages of ten and eight, Mother had said they were too young. She led Peter further in, the banners promoting the new exhibit that they themselves were there to see looking eerie hanging from the ceiling in the dim light.

On the banner, the ghostly face of the dreaded pirate captain cast his gaze outward. Captain Killian "Hook" Jones, former scourge of the seas and once the most feared pirate in the world - his body had been a monumental find off the coast of the town. How Mayor Mills had managed to keep the scientific community from taking the corpse to examine it was beyond Wendy - all she knew was that eventually it would be going to New York, but the fact that they got it first was extremely important and good for business and tourism.

"Creepy…" Peter murmured, and when she gave him a smug look he quickly added: "Come on, look at his face! You've gotta admit, that's unsettling."

"Whatever you say, Peter,"

They made their way down the hallway and right over to where the crate containing the captain was. It was next to where the exhibit would be, though for some reason it wasn't set up yet. Maybe the rain had delayed things. _Oh, Father will not be pleased…._

The crate was sealed shut, and there were several boxes along with it. As they approached the crate containing the corpse, Wendy felt a slight chill down her spine.

"Stop it," she hissed at Peter, sure that he was messing with her.

"Stop what?"

"You know what!" He didn't react besides looking confused, and the two of them looked on at what awaited them.

Wendy began to search for a crowbar.

"What are you doing?" he asked as she stepped around boxes, seeing if she could find one.

"Looking for a crowbar."

"What for? We can't open that thing."

"How are we supposed to see it if we don't open the box?"

"Won't your father be mad?"

"If he saw that the exhibit was in this state with so little time until it opened, he would be furious. If we at least do this, we'll be doing him a favor," Wendy explained. She couldn't seem to find one, so she stood. "I think there's one in the janitor's closet. I'll have to grab the key from Dad's office."

Peter silently followed her and they made their way to her father's office; she unlocked the door and pushed it open and was surprised by the sudden contrast as they turned on the light. This was well-lit unlike the rest of the museum, and looked rather comfortable. Her own bedroom at home wasn't this nice.

"Should be another ring of keys somewhere…" she said as they began their search.

Peter checked the drawers but Wendy's attention was drawn by a safe. It was rather small and hidden away, and she wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't been looking at the picture in front of it. The picture was her and her brothers, and when she moved it out of the way to get a look at the safe, she saw there was a sticky note with a combination written on the back.

"I think I found it! Is this it?" Peter asked, holding up a key ring with several keys on it. It was the correct one and she nodded to tell him so, but her attention was drawn by something else and he knew it. "What did you find?" he asked, Wendy moved so he could see the safe and the combination. One shared glance told them exactly what to do, and he quickly unlocked the safe.

Inside, they saw a small, red jewel that almost seemed to be glowing, though it could have just been reflecting the light.

"Come on," Peter said, "let's get the crowbar."

He went for the door and Wendy followed, but first she pocketed the jewel. She wouldn't take it out of the building because her father would know if she had, but it felt too important to just leave in there.

They had to try a couple of keys to unlock the janitor's closet, and once they got inside it was mostly unlit except for a small lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. They had to search a bit, which was difficult because it was a rather cramped space, but they soon found the crowbar and made their way back to the crate. Together, they used it to open the crate.

Once they got it open and were able to see the corpse of Captain Jones, a lightning bolt flashed and the light refracting through the roof landed on the skull of the pirate, making it almost look like he was smirking.

There was a small piece of folded up paper attached to the inside of the lid of the crate. Peter tore it off and unfolded it.

"This says there's more to the exhibit than just the body," he said after reading it. "It's missing a pistol, a cutlass, and a silver hook."

"They must be in these boxes," Wendy said. Their search began anew, they opened the boxes one by one and slowly but surely, found the missing pistol and sword of the pirate. They placed them where they were supposed to go on the corpse according to the picture, yet they were still missing the hook.

"I wonder where it is…"

"Well, it says it's made of silver. Must be valuable, right?"

"Sounds like it. Want to check my father's office again?"

"Yeah. Who knows what else we might find there?"

They made their way back and began to search, though it was starting to prove futile. Just when Wendy was starting to lose hope, she stubbed her toe on something underneath her father's desk.

"Ow! Shit!" Whatever she had stubbed it on, it was large and heavy.

"Now, Wendy, is that language becoming of a young lady?" Peter asked, smirking. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Shut up and help me see what's under here."

They knelt down to the floor and peered under the desk - there was a wooden box. They pulled it out and saw the ornate carvings on it. There was a letter on top of it that Wendy read aloud.

" _George Darling,_

 _Upon hearing that your museum was the lucky one to be granted first access to this historic find, I knew that I had to send this to you. This box was discovered with the wreckage of the Jolly Roger, Captain Jones's ship, and is the most significant find besides his actual body. Unfortunately, we have been unable to discover what is inside due to not wanting to damage the box itself. As you can see, it has no keyhole and no other means of opening it, only this latch at the top. The latch looks as those you could put something into it to somehow open the box, but we have no idea what that could be. In short, I send this to you to help with your exhibit in the hopes that someday, someone will be able to open it and we may be able to discover more about the life and secrets of Captain Hook._

 _Yours, cordially,_

 _Belle French_

 _Storybrooke Historic Research Division"_

"Isn't that one of the scientists that moved to town last year?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, I think so. _The Storybrooke Daily Mirror_ did an article about it," Wendy replied. The latch that the letter had mentioned looked familiar to her.

Without thinking, she reached into her pocket and took out the jewel. Peter watched her, wide-eyed.

"Never took you for a thief, Wend," he said. She ignored him and slowly, carefully, placed the jewel into the latch. There was a moment where nothing happened, and then the jewel was pressed into the box like it was engraved into it, and one of the sides opened up. Wendy reached over and pulled out the missing hook.

It was heavier than she had expected as she lifted it up in the light, and still sharp after so many centuries. She was careful to make sure her hands didn't wobble as she held it so she didn't accidentally scratch one of them.

"That is…."

"A rather historic find, wouldn't you say?" Wendy asked, grinning at Peter. He grinned back.

"You are bloody brilliant. Come on, let's put it where it belongs."

They made their way back to the crate that held the corpse of Captain Jones. Together, Peter and Wendy placed the hook back into the slot where the pirate had fashioned a makeshift sling to hold the device in place. There was a click as it successfully went in, a sudden flash of lightning and thunder in succession, and suddenly the entire museum went dark.

"What the hell? Peter asked. "What happened?"

"The lightning must have caused the fuse box to blow up," Wendy said. She felt the chill from earlier down her spine again but ignored it. "It's in the janitor's closet - I'll go fix it. You would get lost in here way too easily."

"Hurry back," Peter said.

Although she fumbled a bit, Wendy made her way first back to her father's office, using the crowbar to break open the emergency case to get a flashlight, and then to the janitor's closet very quickly in the dark. She grabbed the flashlight out of it and the axe as well, though she left the rope. She entered the janitor's closet and used the flashlight to find the fuse box, where she saw that her suspicions were proven correct and that the fuses had blown. She knew the janitor and where he kept the spares, so it was a quick matter to find them and put them back in place. One switch flip later and the room was illuminated.

There, see? Easy-peasy.

She made her way back to the exhibition hall and found Peter staring in shock at the crate that contained Captain Hook. Or rather, that _had_ contained Captain Hook. The corpse was gone.

"Wendy! Get over here!" he said when he saw her. She ran over.

"What happened?!"

"I… I can't believe it… The body just… ran away…"

"Peter, this isn't funny! What did you do with the captain?!" Wendy demanded. How could a corpse just get up and walk away?

"I'm serious!" Peter said. "Look, it dropped something in the crate! In the wood shavings! Go look for yourself!"

Wendy rolled her eyes and went to investigate. Buried in the wood shavings, she found a small gold signet ring. It looked old and valuable. She stuffed it into her pocket without thinking.

"I'm going to call my father - something is very wrong." She ran towards his office.

"Wendy, wait!"

She ran into her father's office and tried to use the phone, but of course for some reason it wasn't working. Suddenly, she felt a presence behind her, and saw a large shadow that… No, it couldn't be! The shadow disappeared as quickly as it showed up, but Wendy's heart was in her throat as she turned towards the open door and the lobby. There was no one there - of course there was no one there, it was just the two of them…. Right?

As Wendy stepped out of the office and into the lobby again, she saw Peter, but this time he was standing on the second floor, looking terrified. She was about to say his name, but then stopped because of what - no, who she saw standing behind him.

"Wendy!" Peter yelled, but he was restrained by the corpse of Captain Hook who for some reason was walking and talking like he was alive. And he almost looked it, in the glow of the lights. He held his cutlass in one hand and had his hook at Peter's neck.

"You'll serve my purpose, coward! Sail forth, my ship - to Skull Island!" the pirate said. He raised his cutlass and eerie lightning erupted from it, going through the glass dome in the ceiling. There was a rumbling that shook the ground, and Wendy barely had time to lurch backwards as a pirate ship - an actual pirate ship! - crashed through the walls of the museum. Debris flew and Wendy scarcely avoided being hit by a piece of marble the size of her head.

Captain Hook jumped onto the deck of the ghost ship with Peter as his captive and began to shout orders to his ghostly crew. Wendy could still hear her best friend shout her name.

There was only one thing she could do at the moment, and that was save him.

The ship had partially crashed into the janitor's closet, knocking several items from it into the lobby among the degree. Wendy grabbed the stepladder and pushed it as close to the ship as she could, then climbed it. She grabbed the axe from her father's office and used it at a weak spot in the wood, trying to make a hole big enough that she could climb through. When she finished, she held the axe in one hand and the flashlight in the other, and climbed on through into the cursed ship.


	2. Into the Ship

**Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry for the delay. I was trying to figure out when I wanted certain things to happen in the story and work/school stuff has kept me pretty occupied lately.**

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The first thing Wendy noticed once she was safely inside the ship was that it was dark. She could hear soft noises all around her, but until her eyes yet again adjusted to the dim light she was alone in her senses. She took that time to think and process what had happened:

 _Okay, a corpse came to life. The corpse kidnapped my best friend. I'm the only one that can save him because who the hell would believe that a pirate ship crashed into the building?_

Right. No calling the police on this one.

There was a lurch and she stumbled; the ship creaked eerily as it moved, almost like a groan. She peered out of the hole she had made to get inside and she could see the wreckage that had been the museum slowly getting farther and farther away. The ship was sailing - no, she wasn't dreaming, it was _actually_ moving - on the water.

Wendy had never been on a boat before, and really hoped that she wouldn't get seasick.

She took a tentative step, then another. The boards creaked as she stepped on them but didn't give way despite clearly being old and worn down from the centuries. She decided to give the credit to magic. What else made sense?

A raspy voice coming from nearby made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

"Between ye and tha' fairy, that's double the bad luck onboard," it said. Wendy slowly turned to face a skeleton, dressed in old, weathered garbs and sitting leaned against a barrel. It took all of her self-control not to scream.

"E-excuse me?"

"Havin' a woman on board a ship is bad luck - everyone knows that!" the skeleton replied. She couldn't really tell due to it having eye sockets rather than eyes, but it seemed to be squinting at her. "Not that ye're much of a woman. Ye look more like a wee girl to me, but I suppose it don't matter." He reached into the barrel, pulled out an old but legible map and handed it to her. "Consider it a gift, lass. Wouldn't want bad luck gettin' lost on the ship."

"Thank you, uh…" She realized that she didn't know his name.

"How rude of me. I haven't properly introduced meself. Me name is Smee. I was the Captain's first mate, back in the golden days. Now look at me! A bloody bag of bones!"

"At least you can talk?" Wendy offered.

"Fat lot of good that's done me. I tell ye, it was all because of that other woman. She was the cause of everything going wrong..." Smee continued muttering, cursing whatever had damned him to this existence. Wendy didn't catch most of it. She chose to interrupt him before he got too lost in his thoughts to help her.

"Do you know where your captain has gone?"

"I heard him up on deck, talking to the boy he took captive," Smee replied.

"Thank you!" Wendy looked at the map. Apparently like the rest of the ship it was magic because it showed her current position along with marking the different rooms of the ship as she entered them. Currently she was what was called the Passage. Wendy was about to walk into the next room when something glittering caught her eye. She walked over to an algae-covered beam and removed the growth. Underneath, she found a gold starfish. It looked valuable, and she figured that it might come in handy if she had to pay someone so she put it in her pocket. Wendy then entered the door at the back of the room. The map showed that she was now in the Crew Quarters. Inside, she didn't find anything useful as the room was pretty much in ruins, just a skeleton hand. It was a dead end, so she went back to the Passage. She chose a different door this time, this one leading to the Infirmary. There was nothing interesting there either so she continued making her way through.

In the Water Reserves, Wendy found some loose planks. They looked suspicious so she pulled them loose and peered under the steps. There she found a trap with a bronze key inside. It looked important so she didn't want to leave it behind. She went back, grabbed the skeleton hand from the Crew Quarters, and used it to trigger the trap so she could grab the key. She also grabbed a second gold starfish and put them both in her pocket, along with a doubloon she found on the floor.

Wendy spent the next ten minutes or so making her way through the ship, pressing forward in the hopes that it would lead her to Peter. She picked up useful-looking objects as she did so, and when she reached a fork in her path she had picked up a hammer and chisel. She also had two of the strange starfish and two keys, one bronze and the other silver, clenched in her fist.

According to the map, she was now in the Crew Quarters. To her right there was a fancy-looking door that looked like it would lead her to what could possibly be the Captain's cabin. She wasn't sure she wanted to break into there and incur more of the pirate's wrath, so she looked at her other option, which was a set of rickety stairs leading up a hatch that would presumably take her up on deck. That looked much more fruitful, and as she walked to the stairs she noticed a crack in the ceiling. When she peered through it, she could see the mast and silhouette of a person seemingly tied to it. The more she watched, the more it looked like Peter.

Wendy climbed on a few barrels and peered through the crack. She was positive now - that was Peter tied to the mast.

"Hey! Peter!" she hissed through the crack. "Peter, down here! It's me!" He looked down and it was hard to tell whether he was shocked or relieved to see her. "I'm going to save you, just hang tight!" she whispered.

"Wend, you have to be careful - he's a madman! He keeps going on about a sacrifice!" Peter let out all of this in a breath, as if the captain was within earshot. Wendy couldn't see the pirate through the crack but she figured it was safer to assume that he was close and keep their voices down.

"I'll be fine," she insisted. "Did he hurt you?"

Before Peter could respond, he was yanked away out of her line of sight by an unseen force. She heard him let out a yell and cried out, "Peter!" and nearly fell over when the captain suddenly became all she could see. He was glaring down at her and it took all her resolve not to look away.

"I see we have a stowaway… What shall I do with you, lass?" Hook asked no one in particular. Peter was trying to squirm out of his grip but the pirate had a firm hold on him.

"Don't touch her! You have me - use me for whatever you're planning!" he insisted.

"Peter, shut up!" Wendy said. "I'm going to save you!"

The captain seemed amused by their bickering. "What fantasies you both cling to! You clearly need to learn a lesson that only the sea can teach." He wrenched Peter off of the mast and the lightning once again illuminated the pirate's face, showing the weathered scars from years of battles. "Your fate can change in an instant, lad. Your lass would do well to remember that." He dragged Peter away, kicking a crate over the crack in the deck so Wendy could no longer see anything through it. She let out a string of curses that would make her parents faint and jumped down from the barrel, furious with herself. Now Peter was in even more danger because of her. If she didn't find a way to get to him soon, she wouldn't have a chance of rescuing him.

She checked the obvious way up first and found that the hatch leading to the deck had a peculiar mechanism on it that resembled an octopus. Three of its tentacles circled around three locks, one bronze, another silver, and the third gold.

Wendy checked her pockets and cursed again - she only had two keys. Where was the gold one?

She made her way over to the captain's cabin door, a glance at the map confirming her suspicions as she approached it. She saw something shiny out of the corner of her eye and turned to see something glittering beneath a patch of algae stuck to a post. Wendy used the hammer and chisel and uncovered a third starfish. She pocketed that one as well and then walked to the door. Upon it she found a mechanism with three slots in it shaped like stars. She took the starfish out of her pocket and placed them into the slots, unto which they fit perfectly but the door wouldn't budge. Twisting the starfish around until they fit a pattern seemed to do the trick, and she heard the click of the lock.

She opened the door slowly and peered into the dimly lit room. There was a small lantern illuminating the desk but even letting the light seep in from the Crew Quarters made little difference to the rest of the room.

The captain's quarters seemed as dark and unforgiving as its master. She could make out the silhouette of what looked like a giant globe in the middle of the floor, likely for planning naval raids. Wendy made her way over to the desk to grab the lantern and when she lifted it up, she nearly dropped it in shock. Inside was a small, blonde fairy in a green dress.

"Please, let me out!" the fairy begged. At this point the fact that a fairy was speaking to her was the last thing on her mind and she opened the top of the lantern. The fairy flew out, illuminating the space around her like a firefly.

"Did Hook trap you in there?" Wendy asked. The fairy fluttered in front of her so they were at eye-level.

"That damned captain has kept me in there for centuries! Thank you for freeing me," it said. "My name is Tinkerbelle, but you can call me Tink. Who are you?"

"My name is Wendy. Hook has captured my friend and I'm trying to free him, but I need a gold key to unlock the hatch to get on deck. Have you seen it?"

"Afraid not, but I'll help you search. It's the least I can do." With Tink there to act as a spotlight, the room became slightly less intimidating. The fairy's warm glow helped keep her growing fear at bay by reminding her that she wasn't alone.

They searched the captain's desk but all they found was a strange chest with an old-looking skull resting on top. Wendy decided to leave it alone and check the cabinets. As she opened one, she asked, "Tink, do you know why Hook trapped you there?"

"He thought he could use my fairy dust to help lead him to treasure," Tink replied, rolling her eyes.

"Could he have?"

"No, fairy dust doesn't lead to riches. It leads to love."

Wendy raised an eyebrow. "To love?"

"True love," Tink insisted, "is the rarest treasure of all."

"Well, in that case," Wendy countered, "maybe that's what he was searching for. Maybe he wanted love."

"Perhaps…" Tink's eyes fell on a book on a nearby desk. "Wendy, look at this!" Wendy opened the book and found that it was a journal. There was a bookmark placed in it so she turned to that page and found entries with varied dates. The handwriting was neat and easy to read despite the years gone by. One was dated September 17th, 1718. It read: " _Since I gained my new powers, everything is so easy. My crew and I are feared and famous. Our wealth is growing and fortune smiles upon us… I want to make it last so I have hidden the cursed coins. My treasure is safe_."

Wendy looked at the fairy. "Powers… What's he talking about?"

"There was a rumor going around at the time that Hook had traded his soul to Davy Jones, demon of the deep seas, in exchange for magic. Looks like they were true."

That would explain how Jones was somehow still alive. "He doesn't look like he has magic. He looks like he's cursed."

"That doesn't surprise me. The two go hand-in-hand quite frequently," Tink said. "Keep reading, there's one more."

The second entry was dated two years later, on June 18th, 1720. " _Everything has changed since Milah came on board. At first I was delighted in kidnapping her and ransoming her fianceé. Now, after I nursed her back to health, I'm not so sure about my plan_."

The next was dated less than a month later - July 10, 1720. " _The cursed chest looks dreadful now and that demon has become menacing - infernal powers are trying to dissuade me from my decision! But I'm determined to retrieve the deposit. Milah will be so happy when my criminal career ends_."

The final words were messier, and had no date. They were written in red and Wendy wasn't entirely convinced that it wasn't blood. It read: " _The old curse brought me back to life… But what is life without Milah? I have to bring her back. The young lad I captured will help me perform my finest act. I set sail before the lass with him could interfere with my plans. It seems that centuries have passed since my demise and now. I don't understand or recognize this strange new world. Only the vast seas are still my home. Onward to Skull Island!_

 _Shouldn't have signed that infernal pact… I miss you, Milah! But soon we will be together again!"_

The words ended there.

"Who is this Milah?" Wendy asked.

Tink looked unsure. "I remember he seemed different the last time the ship set sail. Perhaps she was why? I'm afraid my memory of the time before his 'death' is failing me."

"We'll figure it out. We have more important things to worry about." Wendy put the journal down and saw the gold key glinting in the light of Tink's aura. She grabbed it triumphantly as the ship lurched to a stop. "Do you know where we are?"

"I believe we've reached the pirate's hideout - Skull Island."

* * *

 **Yes, I am aware that Storybrooke is in Maine in the show. But Maine is nowhere near the ocean, so we're moving Storybrooke to….somewhere near the ocean. Probably the Caribbean, to make it easy. Hey, it's an AU. Who says it has to make sense?**

 **Milah and Tink both got introduced earlier than I had planned, but we'll be seeing more of Milah later on. Next chapter will head back to Storybrooke and see what's going on there. Until next time!**


End file.
